Why do I get pops & clicks or unpredictable noise bursts in my audio signal on my Windows laptop when I use an external audio interface?

There are a number of possible reasons for pops & clicks and/or noise bursts in the audio, but one of the most common reasons on laptops is CPU throttling. Depending on the brand of your laptop, this might be called “SpeedStep” or “SmartCPU” on your system. In simple terms, what this does is to reduce the speed of the CPU to preserve energy whenever the system load allows this. Unfortunately, CPU throttling can have a bad effect on any active audio playback or recording task which will be audible as noise bursts or pops & clicks.
Most Laptop computers will allow to turn this feature off. Please check the following link for tips on the subject:

http://www.bay-wolf.com/speedstep.htm

If your computer doesn’t allow to turn SpeedStep off or if you are not satisfied with the extend of control that is given in Windows XP to configure SpeedStep, you may want to have a look at the following link. The utility that can be found on this page gives more advanced control over the Speed Step functions.
**WARNING: The program that can be downloaded when following this link is not a supported program and Sweetwater is not in any way affiliated with any linked website listed in this FAQ document. We will not give support or take responsibility for the application that is available from the linked page!

http://www.diefer.de/speedswitchxp/index.html

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